


even the universe gives us its blessing

by joycrumble



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Study, F/F, Fluff, just uwu all around
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23988382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joycrumble/pseuds/joycrumble
Summary: joy and the people she holds dearest.or; a study of joy's relationship dynamic with each of her members, with individual, separate AUs
Relationships: Bae Joohyun | Irene/Park Sooyoung | Joy, Kang Seulgi/Park Sooyoung | Joy, Park Sooyoung | Joy/Son Seungwan | Wendy
Comments: 7
Kudos: 76





	1. irene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> irene and joy, joohyun and sooyoung; they make the perfect team.

joy and irene are the couple you admire from afar, the couple too perfect to fathom, the couple that is absolutely untouchable.

on the surface, that is.

what people don't see is how irene clings on to joy's shirt after a long day like it's the only thing keeping her sane. in their apartment, illuminated only by the distant city lights, powerful leader irene bae fades away into country girl bae joohyun. holding her is park sooyoung, looking softly at the woman in her arms; nothing like the fierce and confident joy park.

some might think of them as having a rather cold, strategic relationship - after all, having two CEOs of major companies together reaps far too many benefits - but those people don't know their real story, they don't know how far back they go, how deep their bond has grown.

behind the facade of authoritative voices and firm gazes, sooyoung and joohyun are actually quite... soft, for lack of better word.

on saturday mornings, sooyoung always tries to make breakfast for joohyun. she's been doing it since they first moved in together, back when she'd just finished university. when sooyoung first started out, it was an effort to do something nice for her then-girlfriend of one year - but it ended up with a bag of spilled flour and one slightly angry, slightly charmed joohyun.

eventually, the taller girl tried again with a more idiot-proof recipe, and it turned out alright. (well, anything better than those liquidy waffles was alright)

she doesn't always do blueberry pancakes or scrambled eggs or whatever. sometimes - most times, actually - she gets lazy, and ends up making a bowl of granola or buying bagels from the bakery downstairs. but joohyun always knows that she can roll out of bed to find sooyoung sitting on the couch fiddling with her phone, with something good resting on the table in front of her.

the pair don't do much elaborate cooking, besides sooyoung's breakfast adventures. on weekdays, sooyoung usually picks joohyun up from her office (because joohyun always, always leaves later than her employees) and they go to their favourite tteokbokki place around the corner, or the barbeque joint near the apartment.

in those hole-in-the-wall restaurants, sooyoung rants about her latest problematic client while joohyun only listens, nods, and wears an amused smile. she's always been the calmer, more rational one of the two; her advice keeps sooyoung grounded, and has saved her from one too many bad decisions. sooyoung swears her company wouldn't be where it is now without joohyun's well-timed critiques.

because their lives are so fast-paced, their weekends are usually pretty lazy. sometimes they do still go out on dates, to go shopping or to those little cafes joohyun likes, but most times they stay at home and enjoy each other's company.

also because the press likes to talk about their relationship a little too much. joohyun really, really doesn't like that.

sometimes they cuddle until the late afternoon, or until sooyoung playfully nips at joohyun's ear or kisses that spot on her neck. then joohyun's suddenly on top of her, arms caging her in and dark hair falling around them like a veil. and sooyoung's brought into a searing kiss that still leaves her dazed after all those years, and they don't leave the bed until the moon hangs bright in seoul's sky.

(or they do leave the bed and sooyoung's pressed against their floor-to-ceiling window instead, hot against the cold glass)

of course, it hadn't always been this blissful. their age gap meant that when they started out, sooyoung was still a little behind in her entrepreneurial ventures, while joohyun was steadily pushing the name irene bae into every household in korea. it was tough to keep their relationship going strong during those times, when sooyoung didn't know if she had a real place in joohyun's new life.

"unnie, i can't live like this anymore!" she'd shouted, palms pressed into the glass of their dining table. "all i am is a burden to you!"

joohyun had stared at her with wide, pained eyes, fists clenched in an effort to keep them from trembling. "you're not, sooyoung, please-"

"no, you don't understand. everything in this house was bought by you! and no matter how much you deny it," sooyoung's voice cracked, then. "i- i know you don't need me anymore." she ran a hand through her hair, bit her lip to force her tears back down. "god, why the hell are you still with me?"

"because i love you!"

that was the first time joohyun had ever raised her voice at sooyoung, properly. and sooyoung remembers freezing on the spot, helplessly staring at her girlfriend. and when joohyun wrapped her in the warmest of hugs, she finally let the tears trickle down her cheeks.

"i love you, sooyoung. i believe in you, and i'll always be here to support you. don't you dare think i would abandon you, ever."

after that incident, things started getting better for them. sooyoung stopped being as insecure, instead channeling her energy into working harder to get her startup off the ground. joohyun did everything she could to give sooyoung the support she needed, but never more than that - joohyun knew her girlfriend wanted to work for her own goals, to get to where she wanted to be by her own merits. sooyoung needed to be on her own, sometimes, and joohyun admired that about her.

their relationship wouldn't have progressed so far without that deep mutual understanding. they knew each other far too well, and complemented each other, even if it didn't seem that way to others. people thought of them as fire and ice at first, like polar opposites that would never be good together. but where sooyoung was too rash, joohyun was there to reason with her; where joohyun had trouble expressing herself, sooyoung heard her feelings loud and clear.

together, they make the greatest team. it doesn't stop sooyoung from purposely getting on her girlfriend's nerves, though. just to see her red cheeks and furrowed eyebrows. it's kind of cute. and hot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! going in age order, so next up is joygi :)
> 
> find me at @joycrumble on twt


	2. seulgi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> with seulgi, sooyoung learns to love the small things in life.

seulgi and sooyoung are your perfect high school love story. there isn't anything else to be said about them, not really - they're just one of the lucky ones. lucky enough to find their true soulmate in the grand chaos of teenage life.

all sooyoung had known was textbooks and volleyball, really. yeah, she was kind of popular - but what mattered to her at the end of the day was working hard to get those As, and doing her best as team captain. everything else came second.

back then, she'd told herself that she could take it easy after she made it to a good university. so her high school years weren't all that exciting, marked by days of bruises from the court and evenings spent at _hagwons_ , before heading home to play with her sisters.

that is, before she met seulgi.

in their senior year, seulgi is introduced to sooyoung as a friend's friend from the class three doors down. 

of course, sooyoung already knows who seulgi is - she's the art kid, the one the whole school knows is going places. but seulgi doesn't seem to know about her fame, so she greets sooyoung with a big grin and crescent eyes.

"seulgi needs some help with chemistry," her friend says. "she needs to at least pass, or her parents won't let her go to art school. could you maybe tutor her? until our midterms, at least?"

so sooyoung agrees. because she thinks it can't be that hard to pass chemistry, and it would be a damn shame if someone with as much talent as seulgi can't go to art school because of something literally irrelevant to her future career.

boy, was she wrong.

during their thursday afternoon tutoring sessions seulgi drifts off too fast, too often. most of the time when sooyoung tries her best to explain a concept, it goes in one ear and comes out the other, and seulgi's left with just one percent more of knowledge than she started.

(totally not because she was overwhelmed by sooyoung's scent, strawberry sweet shampoo mixed with hints of citrus)

and of course sooyoung gets frustrated. but seulgi tries her best and she's determined to make it work for her. so she just sighs and goes over the content again, a little slower.

seulgi feels bad, because sooyoung's doing this for free (the taller girl insisted) and she isn't exactly the best student. to make up for it, she starts leaving little goodies on sooyoung's desk on friday mornings to surprise her.

sometimes they're chocopies accompanied by a cute sketch of a pie, maybe a kitkat with a little cat tacked on. then it slowly upgrades to a donut from the local bakery, some strawberry-flavoured mochi. always with a new drawing, signed with a tiny bear in the bottom-right corner.

sooyoung's friends do question it. they ask, who's the secret admirer? which boy is putting in this much effort to woo our cold-hearted sooyoungie?

but sooyoung's known it's seulgi since the very first one. she just doesn't tell anyone.

they both pretend they know nothing about the gifts during their sessions, because faint pink blushes and early morning trips to buy those snacks can't be expressed in words very easily.

finally, when their midterm results are out, seulgi bursts into sooyoung's classroom with a huge smile. she runs right up to sooyoung and presents her with the results slip, with all As and Bs except the single C for chemistry.

"you did it!" sooyoung cheers, wraps seulgi in a massive hug. "you passed!"

"all thanks to you, sooyoung-ah!" seulgi's eyes are sparkling, captivating even in their dingy classroom. "c'mon! i'll treat you to dinner."

sooyoung can't resist, obviously. that night, she skips her _hagwon_ lesson to get jjajangmyeon with seulgi. when that nagging feeling of neglecting her studies bites at her gut, she remembers seulgi's laughter and decides that just one lesson won't do any harm.

time passes. even after their sessions end and they work towards their final exams, sooyoung receives more snacks, more quick yet immaculate sketches; she misses a couple more lessons because why the hell not. (it's not like her grades are going to slip, anyway.)

sooyoung learns to feel the breeze in her hair, to appreciate seoul's evening skies that seulgi loves so much. she realises that it's alright to divert your attention from your goals sometimes, to focus on the now. because there's more to life than a good university and a good job.

there's so much beauty all around her that she never gave enough love before. and now, seulgi takes her hand and guides her through the art exhibit; she points out every delibrate stroke, teaching her how to love the small things just like how she taught seulgi to draw the skeletal formulas of atomic compounds.

one day, about two weeks before their final exams, the pair are on their school's roof (seulgi found a way. she always did) lounging in the late afternoon sun. it's their first time up there in a while, since they've both been busy studying. seulgi figured they both needed a bit of a breather, albeit a short one.

sooyoung's lying with her head on seulgi's lap, the latter sat up against a concrete wall. they're under a small shelter, just enough to still feel the slight warmth on their skin and see the clouds drifting by.

sooyoung has a box of strawberry pocky in her hands. she's just opened the box when seulgi cuts in.

"i want one."

sooyoung reaches two delicate fingers into the box, pulls out one pocky stick and puts the plain end in her mouth so it sticks up into the air.

seulgi blinks, peers down at sooyoung curiously but quickly takes the cue. she bends down to bite the other end and continues to move down slowly and sooyoung doesn't even blink but they're getting closer and closer and-

their first kiss tastes of fake strawberries, soft and absolutely delightful. neither girl really knows what they're doing but they do know that they've waited for this for far, far too long.

when they pull apart, sooyoung smiles up at seulgi, and whispers, "let's continue this after our exams are done, okay?"

so after their last paper they go out for bubble tea and make it official.

in the months after that, seulgi busies herself with working on her portfolio for art school. sooyoung doesn't have much to do, but she does want to keep her girlfriend company, so she makes herself a home in the kang household on saturdays.

she makes fast friends with seulgi's parents, while they still think the pair are 'just friends'. they think she's everything seulgi needs in her life: organised, goal-oriented, confident, charming. they even voice it out to seulgi, once, telling her that she should be more like her pretty friend sooyoungie. seulgi doesn't know whether she should feel insulted or proud.

on those lazy afternoons, seulgi sits at her easel and paints, while sooyoung's sprawled out on her bed playing cuphead with immense focus.

the taller girl gets frustrated pretty quickly, though. (with a game like cuphead, it's hard not to) so after an hour or so, sooyoung stands up to stretch, then can't help but wrap her arms around the waist of the artist at work.

seulgi feigns annoyance at first, all 'go away's and 'you're distracting me's. but she eventually does relent, because sooyoung is irresistable. then innocent warm touches become kisses on the back of her neck and hands firm around her waist, and then they start making out like the teenagers they are.

for someone as put together as sooyoung, you wouldn't expect her to be this needy. _but she is._ she's also seulgi's biggest weakness so there's nothing she can do.

seulgi's room starts to change slightly after a while. there are less half-used tubes of paint on the table and less water stains on her poor wooden floor. her bed is always made after sooyoung leaves. sooyoung buys a tiny white maltese figurine and puts it on seulgi's highest shelf, so she'll "always remember what's important in life". 

seulgi feels herself changing too - she gains a burning motivation to work hard, sees her future vivid before her eyes like one of her paintings. dreams morph into goals, and finally they feel within reach. she sees her work in galleries and cheques and a studio to call her own.

she sees herself and sooyoung, together past the finish line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! next up is a crowd favourite, wenjoy :)
> 
> find me at @joycrumble on twt


	3. wendy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> seungwan is sooyoung's best part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> based on best part by daniel caesar ft H.E.R! listen while you read maybe

sooyoung meets seungwan - wendy, then - at a bar in gangnam.

it's a classy place, not like those seedy clubs that reek of sweat. with its cozy wooden fixtures and jazz music, it's clear that this is a place for people to unwind from the day, to catch up with friends. not to pick up random cute girls.

sooyoung's there with some of her colleagues to celebrate their recent successful project. she doesn't really care for idle conversation, though, or for drinking with people that aren't her friends. so she takes a single polite sip of soju, sets down the glass and nods along to yet another one of her manager's stories.

after an hour or so, sooyoung's about ready to make up a shitty excuse to leave when the emcee's smooth voice echoes throughout the bar.

"please put your hands together to welcome tonight's performer: wendy."

mild applause fills the room and the emcee steps aside to reveal the gorgeous singer just behind him. she's all blonde hair and red lips, sitting on a small chair and holding a matte black guitar that feels too big for her petite frame.

sooyoung's looking, anticipating. because wendy's a pretty girl that's about to perform, and because she has nowhere else to look.

wendy looks up from her place, brown eyes studying the crowd in front of her. then she straightens her back, strums the guitar and starts to sing.

_you don't know, babe_

_when you hold me_

_and kiss me slowly_

_it's the sweetest thing_

sooyoung hangs onto every word, feels herself clinging to every strum of wendy's guitar like she can't let go. 

_and it don't change_

_if i had it my way_

_you would know that you are_

maybe it's the way she wears a small smile while she sings like she knows she's good. maybe it's the utter confidence she exudes, how absolutely in her element wendy is. she wears the limelight like a second skin - like she was born to sing.

_you're the coffee that i need in the morning_

_you're my sunshine in the rain when it's pouring_

it's intoxicating. wendy's warm, beautiful voice soothes her, wraps around her like soft velvet that she can’t get enough of.

_won’t you give yourself to me_

_give it all, oh_

so sooyoung stays for the rest of the song. and after her coworkers clap politely and start getting up to leave, sooyoung says, "you guys can go on ahead. i'm waiting for someone."

  
  


wendy's set ends after a couple more songs. she's off to a table by the side packing up when sooyoung struts over like she has nothing to lose.

"hey."

wendy turns around to face sooyoung, a small smile resting on her pretty red lips. "can i help you?" she rasps, quirking up an eyebrow.

(she's even more beautiful up close, sooyoung notes)

"yeah, actually," sooyoung replies. she flashes a confident grin, gestures towards the bar counter. "could i buy you a drink?"

the singer's beaming, then, a sunny smile that almost blinds sooyoung. and she lets out a small, melodic laugh.

"sorry, cutie. i'm not drinking tonight."

sooyoung flushes a little pink. maybe today's just not her day. a somewhat forced reply is on the tip of her tongue when wendy cuts in again.

"maybe next week, though," wendy says. her eyes glitter in the dim light, playful and teasing and absolutely dangerous.

"i'll see you around?"

"yeah," sooyoung breathes. "see you around."

  
  


the following friday, sooyoung gets to the bar late.

it wasn’t her fault her manager was being a dick. he’d tossed her something last minute, asked her to get it done before she left. what else could she have done?

so she rushes though the doors at 10pm, desperately hoping that _somehow_ the captivating singer wendy would still be hanging around, an hour after the time they’d first met.

she scans the club, disappointment building in her chest when finally, _finally_ , she spots a familiar platinum blonde right at the end of the bar top.

"drinking tonight, princess?" sooyoung says, leaning against the bar counter. 

"cutie. thought you'd never show up."

wendy's wearing short-sleeved white shirt with the top three buttons undone, revealing a small cross tattoo resting on her sternum. it's tucked into black leather pants that accentuate her figure, and in her lap sits a folded up leather jacket.

sooyoung stares for a little too long, but feels wendy's eyes roaming her body too. she feels another surge of confidence, one that puts a satisfied smirk on her face.

"so can i have a name?" wendy shifts, rests her cheek in the palm of her hand. "or would you rather me call you cutie all the time?"

"it's sooyoung."

"sooyoung," wendy repeats, a small smile spreading on her face. "you can call me seungwan."

so it starts from there. that night, sooyoung gets to know seungwan, the owner of a small cafe downtown that sings at neighbourhood bars on the side. charming, talkative seungwan that laughs with her whole body, that holds the universe in her eyes.

at the end of the night, when seungwan returns her phone with new contact ‘seungwannie’, sooyoung feels like a lovestruck highschooler again. she figures that it’s probably seungwan’s brand - to allure, to shine bright and bewitch everyone with her good looks and flirtatious smiles. but she lets herself be taken with her anyway.

  
  


they meet a couple more times at the bar. sooyoung always drops by to watch her sets and they head out for food after, sharing sweet little anecdotes over steaming hot tofu stew. 

the pair fall slowly but surely - always flirting, always teasing, basking in small gestures and honey-smothered gazes. they take their time, slow dancing under the moonlight, so that mere attraction naturally shifts into something more.

eventually, seungwan proposes that sooyoung drops by her cafe the next day. “first drink’s on the house,” she reasons. “and i’d like to see your pretty face in the sunlight for a change.”

seeing seungwan in her apron, short hair half-tied and greeting customers with all the cheer in the world is different. it’s a welcome change, and suddenly this whole thing feels so much more _real_ to sooyoung. like perfect girl seungwan does exist and isn’t just a mirage.

when seungwan spots her and sends a wink her way, sooyoung knows that she has to make a proper move. so she waits once again for seungwan, but instead of a rum & coke it’s an iced latte in her hand, and instead of lust all she has is a love that overflows.

in the empty cafe, with the evening sun coating everything in a warm glow, sooyoung kisses seungwan for the first time.

it’s soft and sensual, with seungwan’s hands resting on the small of her back. when they pull apart, breathless, seungwan rests her forehead against sooyoung’s and whispers,

“took you long enough.”

  
  


their relationship doesn’t change much after they make it official. rather, certain characteristics just become… amplified. not in a bad way.

they make it a point to spend friday nights together. usually that means saturday mornings, too, in seungwan’s apartment just across the street from the cafe.

on weeks that seungwan’s performing, the couple do pretty much the same things that they did before - sooyoung tries to be there for at least half the set, watching seungwan from the back of the bar, then she drives them out to grab a bite after. occasionally, they end up going straight to sooyoung’s apartment for movie nights and junk food.

sooyoung likes seungwan the most when she’s at her place, when she takes all her makeup off and shrugs on one of sooyoung’s old university hoodies without anything underneath. 

when they’re cuddled together on the small couch, sooyoung can’t help but snake a hand up past the hem of her hoodie to rest on the soft skin of seungwan’s waist. it’s warm and nice and when she drags her fingers across slowly, seungwan shivers and presses closer to her.

sometimes those fingers end up on seungwan’s thigh instead, dancing around on the delicate skin before trailing up to her center.

by then, she either tells her to cut it out, or she climbs into sooyoung’s lap and lets her have her way. 

(usually it’s the latter.)

nights that seungwan isn’t performing are their official date nights. more often than not seungwan takes charge, knocking off a little earlier to head home and prepare something delicious for sooyoung. seungwan’s all about romantic gestures and cute things like that, so every other friday sooyoung enjoys amazing candle-lit dinners in seungwan’s apartment that make her feel so loved and so spoiled.

“unnie, i hope you don’t feel like you have to do these things for me,” she says once, swallowing a bite of seungwan’s chicken parm. “i mean it’s really nice and the food is delicious, but i’d love you just the same even if we ate ramyeon by the roadside.”

seungwan smiles at that, leans in a little like she’s about to share a secret. “if we were eating ramyeon by the roadside, i’d still have made it for you. i’d feed you, too.”

“ugh, so greasy.”

“only for you.”

  
  


at first, sooyoung thinks seungwan is too good for her. even after she becomes her girlfriend that thought stays with her, nagging at her in the back of her mind.

seungwan’s like the sun. all she brings is love to the people around her, all she does is be kind and diligent and genuine. sometimes she shines so bright that it almost blinds sooyoung, and she’s cast in shadow beside her, always afraid that her sun will set and leave her alone in the darkness.

but every morning she wakes up to sweet words from an even sweeter mouth. when she’s empty and tired, all she needs is a quick call to feel whole again. and at every opportunity, seungwan holds her hand or kisses her softly to tell her that yes, she is enough.

so over time, sooyoung learns to let her walls come down. she lets go of those insecurities she’d been subconsciously clinging on to, and allows seungwan to fill in the spaces.

one saturday morning they’re in sooyoung’s bed, tangled in the sheets amidst the soft daylight streaming in. sooyoung wakes up first so she gently removes seungwan from her arms and heads to freshen up, but she’s stopped by a light groan.

she turns around and seungwan’s stretching like a cat, eyes squeezed shut before she exhales and relaxes. then she raises an arm out limply for sooyoung, who watches with an amused smile.

“sooyoung-ah, c’mere,” she whines. sooyoung climbs back into bed and buries her face in the crook of seungwan’s neck.

her girlfriend threads her fingers through long, dark hair and presses a kiss to the crown of her forehead. she starts to hum something familiar, before she sings softly.

_i just wanna see how beautiful you are_

_you know that i see you, i know you’re a star_

sooyoung realises it, then. it fills her to the brim, almost bursting at the seams.

_where you go i’ll follow, no matter how far_

_if life is a movie,_

then seungwan’s her best part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was my favourite to write so far :) wenjoy stealing hearts as always  
> last chapter coming up is joyri! see you in a bit
> 
> find me at @joycrumble on twt


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